many of you may know and many may not know that i have wanted a tattoo for years. i occasionally spend hours on the internet looking at tattoos and meanings of words and designs. for years i have tought about what i would want if i were to get at tattoo. after all, its forever and i want it to be relevant to my life and also be worth the money and pain i was gonna put into it.two things have become extreamly important to me over the last few years. one, gods glory and my life being a reflection of his glory. two, adoption. after returning home from bangkok, thailand with our beautiful daughter, reese, i knew that whenever i got a tattoo it would somehow involve adoption. as i would spend spare time playing on the internet i would check out pictures of thailand and its culture and natural beauty. one of the things that i loved about bangkok was that in the midst of an over populated city with buildings and people as far as you could see, there were plants and trees and flowers everywhere. the temples and offering spots for buddah were placed all over the city so that anyone could easily have access to them. and all the buddahs were completely covered in flowers, food and insence. this is another topic i could blog about as far as how committed the thai people are to connecting with their "god" on a daily basis.
the flower that stands out to me is the lotus flower, lotus blossom, water lilly. this flower has significant meaning within the buddist religion but for me it is a symbol of our adoption process with reese. the lotus flower starts its life in the mud. and as it struggles to make its way through the mud and water it rises to the surface and the final product is a beautifully designed flower. as we waited and struggled through paperwork and financial deadlines and waiting and emotions and more waiting the end result was a beautiful little girl that god designed and purposed to be in our family. resse also had her own struggles to get through in order to be adopted. to watch her grieve over the loss of her foster family was the sadest thing that i have ever seen. but our god and his grace, mercy, love and faithfulness got us through the struggles and made a beautiful new family.
do you have a favorite kind of sky? sunrise, sunset, when the clouds are beautiful shades of pink, orange, blue or purple? i love looking at the sky and its beauty but my ultimate all-time favoritest sky is when the sunrays are shining through the clouds. why? im glad you asked. as far back as i can remember i have always thought that is what the glory of god looks like. it causes me to wonder if that is what the throne of god looks like. i feel like those sunrays are gods glory peeking through the clouds so that we can get a glimpse of how awesome he is.
so thats it. thats why i chose this for my tatttoo. its gods glory in adoption. i have not one time regretted it. i love it. brooke cook was the artist who took my thoughts and turned it into something tangible. she did an amazing job! she works at anchor tattoo in bryant and i highly recommed her and her husband ryan if you are looking to get a tattoo.
